MyPC Backup burst onto the scene in mid-2011 as yet another online backup company, but once you look at their list of features and reasonable prices, you see they are poised to become one of the most popular options in the backup space.

Getting Started With MyPC Backup

When you first hit My PC Backup’s website, you notice that is is very clean and well-organized. All you have to do to start your free trial is sign up using your name, email, and chosen password. (There is no credit card required for the trial.)

Clicking the sign-up button takes you to a download page where your download (~ 9MB file) should start instantly. If not, there are on-screen instructions to read and even a woman on the screen telling you how (with a pleasant voice I must add) how to begin. So even beginner computer users should have no trouble here.

After downloading, it is literally a one-click install. You just click “install” and next thing you know, it’s ready. Then you log in using your email address and password.

Then you get the choice of either “Backup ‘My Documents’ Folder,” their recommended setup, or “Custom Selection,” for advanced users. Most users should just backup their My Documents folder, but I always do the custom selection because I’m picky about exactly which files of mine get backed up and how quickly they get backed up.

Next, just click OK, and the software configures everything.

Once configured, you are taken to the main interface where you can make any changes to your scheduled backups and settings. If you’re doing the free trial, your backups are limited to about 15MB of space, so it will start immediately and finish quickly, and you will be presented with an optional link to upgrade your account.

If you choose to upgrade, you’ll be presented with a variety of options including plans for 75GB backup, 250GB backup, and unlimited backup. Prices vary depending on if you pay on a monthly basis or pay for 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years up front. Expect to pay in the range of $6-13 per month (or less if you clicked on their secret discount link.)

In the next section, I’ll put the MyPC Backup Pro account to the test…

MyPC Backup In Use

From now on, you’ll control almost all aspects of your backup through the software’s main control panel.

You’ll see the following tabs along the top:

Backup

Drag & Drop

My Files

Restore

Sync Folder

Settings

Help

Let me take a moment to explain all the different tabs…

Backup
This is the main tab that shows you all your stats – available space vs space used, your next scheduled backup, etc. – in one place. It’s a simple “at a glance” screen you can check to make sure everything is working correctly.

Drag & Drop
This is just a blank screen, but beneath the surface is a very cool feature. You can drag and drop files there to back them up. It’s just like dragging and dropping between normal folders.

My Files
Clicking this tab takes you to your online account in your default web browser where you can browse your files and download any of them, individually, whenever you like.

Restore
Clicking this tab brings up the virtual version of your machine that is backed up via MyPC Backup, all within the main interface. All you have to do is select files and click “restore,” choose where to restore to, and then you can download them.

Sync Folder
This link brings up your “sync folder” which is on your local machine, and it is home to any files you have synced between multiple computers.

Settings
This tab brings up a new window with 7 more tabs, allowing you to change all sorts of settings. I’ll cover this in the next section.

Help
This one is a link to their online help center, which is pretty cool and nicely organized.

Backing Up Your Files

After the initial set up, you’re almost done! I just suggest you go through the Settings tabs to iron out the details on your Scheduled Backup.

Most important is to pick a time to schedule your backups to start. The default is 8:00 PM, and most people will choose to backup in the evening once they have finished working for the day. But you can set this at any time of day.

You can also choose to disable backups at certain times of the day to save your internet bandwidth for other tasks. In the screenshot, you’ll see I paused backups from typical 9-5 working hours so as not to interfere with other online activities.

If you want to change the folders that are scheduled to back up, or want to switch between the basic ‘My Documents’ and custom backup options, you can do that under Settings, too.

Also pay attention the the file size limit setting. You can set this anywhere between 1MB and 3GB – I’d recommend somewhere between 1GB and 3GB.

If you leave that set at the default of 1MB, any file bigger than 1MB (which is most any file) will be left out of your backup!

The last setting to review is the “excluded file types” by default. You’ll see a number of file types are turned off by default, including MP3, AVI, and EXE files.

So look through this list when you first get started to make sure you’re not missing anything. I wouldn’t want you to lose your music, videos, and software installers.

When it’s time to run the scheduled backup, MyPC Backup gets to work, and you can check the progress just by opening up the desktop software. It should look something like this:

You can also do the Drag & Drop backup I mentioned earlier. In this case, you just drag and drop any files or folders into the specified “Drag & Drop” tab, and My PC Backup takes care of the rest (as seen in these screenshots.)

There is also what I call on the fly backups. For this, you can right-click on any file and there’s a MyPC Backup menu option where you can add the file to your backup schedule, add it to your sync folder, or do an “instant backup” if you don’t want to wait.

I love these simple options, especially the right-click menu. What really makes these cool is that all files maintain their hierarchy when dragged and dropped. So you never have to specify where the file should be backed up. The software figures it all out on its own!

How to Sync Files

MyPC Backup offers a basic file sync feature that is extremely easy to use. It allows you to sync up to 100MB of files between your main computer and any others where you have installed the software. (You can only backup one computer, but you can use the sync feature amongst any number of computers.)

You’ll notice a “Sync Folder” added to your desktop. To use the sync feature, all you have to do is copy and paste (or drag and drop) files into this folder. That’s it! You can also right-click any file and choose “Copy to SyncFolder” (which can be seen on the previous screenshot above.)

Once files are added to this folder, they are supposed to be synced instantly. In my testing, it took up to three hours for the synced files to appear. I’d like it to be instant 100% of the time, but considering this is primarily a backup service and not a sync service, I don’t mind.

How to Restore Your Files From Backup

If the unthinkable happens and your computer (and all your data) go down the toilet, MyPC Backup provides you a simple restoration process.

First, log in at MyPCBackup.com and download and install the software onto your new computer. Then go to the “Restore” tab.

Clicking this tab brings up the virtual version of your machine that is backed up via MyPC Backup, all within the main software interface.

All you have to do is select your files and click “restore,” choose where to restore to, and then you can download everything over your internet connection.

Final Decision on MyPC Backup

What I liked about MyPC Backup:
The software is extremely easy to use – just a few clicks and you are ready to go! And it does this without skimping on important features.

What I did not like about MyPC Backup:
You can’t schedule backups to run instantly and continuously; “hourly” is the fastest. (Instant backups are possible, but must be done manually.)

MyPC Backup has a great service that worked smoothly throughout my testing. Whether I was backing up my files, restoring files, or syncing files, it worked. While I’m still a fan of Carbonite for their constant backup and priority backup features (and of course the red/yellow/green dots,) MyPC Backup is a viable contender in the online backup space and should be considered alongside the other popular services.

If you would like to try out MyPC Backup, you can get started immediately by clicking the link below.

Key Features

MyPCBackup offers just about every feature you’d expect from an online backup company.

Automatic backups. That’s #1. You pick what you want backed up and they do it on schedule. I set the software to backup my computer each day while I’m on my lunch break. Whenever I get back to my desk, there’s a “Backup Complete” report waiting for me to confirm everything is backed up.

It takes some time for your initial backup to complete, but after that, the incremental backups are quick.

File sync. MyPC Backup includes a file sync feature that’s a lot like Dropbox. You get a special sync folder, and files in there are synced between all your computers. (You can install My PC Backup on unlimited computers in order to use the sync folder.)

It would be neat if they could sync every single file you have backed up, but that’s a tall order. I’m happy just to have the sync folder at all; only a select few backup companies are offering free syncing like this.

A variety of backup methods. There are multiple ways to backup your files, so you can choose the one you’re most comfortable with. For one, you can backup files using “drag and drop.” Just click the appropriate section within the control panel and drag your files onto it. They’ll be added to your backup.

You also have the option of right-clicking a file and adding it to your backup selection or backing it up instantly. Whenever I create a new file that’s very important to me, I’ll use the right-click and “Instant Backup” option to be safe.

Install and Setup Process

It’s very simple to install the required software. You can do the basic installation which is very fast and simple, or go advanced, which allows you to control more options right from the start.

You do have to mess around here though, once installation is complete. Make sure you look at defaults – the default settings are there to save money for MyPC Backup, not to provide you with the best backups!

From the software’s main welcome screen, go into “Settings,” which brings up a new menu.

Then, go under “Backup Selection” and get rid of that 1MB file size limit. Otherwise you’ll only back up a few small text files.

Under the “File Types” tab, watch out for excluded file types. By default, MyPC Backup won’t backup common music or video files such as MP3, MP4, and AVI, and I’d hate to see you lose your music collection because of this.

Once I got all this sorted, everything worked fine, so just consider this a reminder to double-check the settings.

Restoring Backups

When it comes time to restore your files, this program performs well and is easy to use; it’s on par with their competitors.

Simply browse through the software to the “Restore” tab, select your files, and click the “Restore Selected Files” button. The files will be back on your computer. It’s extremely easy.

You can also go to your online control panel and choose the “My Backups” tab. From there you can browse your folders and files for easy downloading or sharing. This is also a good spot to check on different versions of files in case you need to revert to an earlier version.

Backup Space and Pricing Plans

There are three different plans to choose from, with the difference being the amount of storage space you get. You can choose between a 75GB plan, a 250GB plan, and the Unlimited plan.

Price ranges from $6.95 to $12.95 per month depending on the plan and how far in advance you pre-pay (paying for two years upfront saves money on a monthly basis.)

Also, be on the lookout for discount coupons in the 30-70% off range. (Not a typo!) I got an “exclusive” 70% coupon offer applied to my account, allowing me to upgrade to an Unlimited plan for just $2.98 per month (when paying for one full year upfront.)

Security

MyPC Backup uses 256 bit AES encryption when transferring files (similar to what a bank or the military would use) and stores your data in the Amazon s3 data center, which is one of the most secure data centers in the world. Not only are files encrypted during storage, they are monitored around the clock, and there is heavy physical security monitoring the location.

Mobile Access

At first, MyPC Backup offered no mobile apps. You had to access the MyPC Backup website on your mobile device if you wanted mobile access. Now you can choose from four different apps!

Apps are available for the iPhone, iPad, Android devices, and BlackBerry. They are all completely free to download regardless of your account type.

Final Verdict

MyPC Backup offers tons of great features at a good price. From my testing, everything seems like it works well.

I did get annoyed trying to figure out the pricing depending on which features I wanted, and the default settings try to avoid having to backup your music and video files, but that’s actually a fairly common practice.

It’s worth downloading the free trial to see if you like the interface. Then, if you’re willing to trust a young company to be reliable, you can get a killer deal on unlimited backup space when upgrade to a real account!

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